


Cat and Mouse

by Meowsapow



Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Gen, Mistaken Identity, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26078428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meowsapow/pseuds/Meowsapow
Summary: Not one, but two vault dwellers escape the day Vault 101 opens. Neither of them realizing the other's deeds, they build the reputation of one man, atoning for each other's crimes and recieving each other's praise.





	Cat and Mouse

The light was harsh as the sirens blared. Vault 101 shook as Langston the hairdresser rolled out of bed. Security was running up and down the halls yelling... something. And gunshots. 

That woke him up.

He looked out the window just as a radroach jumped at the window. He stumbled backwards to the ground, and reached shakily for the prize his mother gave him:

A laser pistol. Used for unruly clients and pesky roaches.

He clicked the safety off, pointing at the window. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and fired.

There was nothing there but a scorch mark on the glass, and the roach was still there. He felt stupid for not remembering the glass was unbreakable.

"Okay, okay... calm down," he muttered, laughing to himself. "What the fuck is going on?"

SMACK. 

A bat hit the window, knocking the roach off. Langston jumped out of his skin a little as he saw a familiar face: James' kid. They were the same age, and both tunnel snakes. And eerily similar. The same dark skin and slicked back black hair, dark brown eyes. But even still, they were distant. He never bothered to learn his name, and the guy probably was in the same position.

They locked eyes through the scorched window before Langston heard yelling and gunshots. The face ducked down, and kept running down the hall. A group of guards followed him.

Huh. Weird.

After they passed, Langston opened the door to well... chaos. Dead roaches, dead people. The stench was unbearable, crowded in such a narrow hallway. He held his breath and tried not to gag as he ran after where the guards went.

The hallways seemed to be filled with more despair as he continued to run. He was always a step behind as the bodies seemed to pile and the vault became more silent. 

Langston felt a pang of hurt as he saw faces he knew. He cut his hair, and her hair... and that guys hair too.

That would be a long list of clients he wouldn't see anymore.

"Help, HELP!"

Langston was grabbed by a familiar face: Butch. He had tears in his eyes. That was a new one.

"Butch? Hey, stop clinging to me like a baby! What are you doin?"

Butch let go. "My-my mom! The roaches, they're..."

Butch points, where a woman can be seen through the glass. She is kicking at roaches on the floor, trying to jump at her. The situation seems dire, and with a burst of courage, Langston clicks off the safety on his laser pistol.

With a shaky breath, he ducks into the room. One. Two. Three. He dispatches the roaches. He nearly drops the pistol after that. The roaches smoked on the ground as the woman's jaw dropped in disbelief. She dropped off the bed, and she grasped Langston into a hug.

"Thank you... thank you..." she whispered, sobbing. Butch patted Langston's back as the woman let go to hig her son, who sheepishly patted her back too. Langston sighed, looking away from the roaches. He gave a thumbs up to Butch, and began to depart.

"Hey, where are you going?" Butch called out, and Langston stopped.

"James' kid. He went past here... something's telling me he's leaving the vault."

Butch sighed. "Yeah, I know. He flew past here, and ignored the two of us. Damn bastard... thought us Tunnel Snakes stuck together."

Langston went to put a hand in his pocket, but found he had none. "Oh... my jacket... shit."

Butch took his off. "Here. You'll need it if you're going where I think you're goin'."

Langston nods. "You sure? I mean-"

"It's fine. I'll just swipe yours from your room after the coast is clear. Just... promise not to get yourself killed. Okay tiger?"

"I promise."

With a curt nod between them, Langston left, continuing to follow the path of carnage left by James' kid. It led away from the vault entrance, and towards the overseers' office. He heard crying as he passed a room, and saw Anita, the overseer's daughter. She seemed hysteric. Her eyes widened as he popped his head through the door. She wiped her tears.

"Anita..? Where's your dad?"

She laughed ruefully. "Dead. Like any of you Tunnel Snakes would care. Your little friend killed him after I woke him up and told him what his dad had done. And this:" she gestures to the room.

"This is the thanks I get."

Langston then noticed what had happened. Guards, and the Overseer himself. They were all bludgeoned, and Langston felt a pang of fear. He was chasing after someone who did all of this. With a bat. 

"Anita, I-"

"Save it. I want you gone. All of you gone. OUT. Get out of my damn vault and never look back."

He backed out of the room slowly, trying to keep his nerves down. He was chasing after a killer after all, the two of them with a similar goal in mind. Was this really such a good idea?

Well, he was about to find out.

The Overseer's office was opened, and the desk moved. The passage underneath led him to the vault entrance. And there stood the face from before: James' kid. He was panting hard, holding a grotesque bat in one hand. His hand was govering above the vault door lock hesitantly. He seemed not to hear Langston behind him.

"So... You're leaving?"

The guy looked behind him. His eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I am. What's it to you?"

Langston gave a halfhearted smile. "What, were my haircuts not good enough?" He joked. He stretched his arms. "Besides, I thought us fellow tunnel snakes had to stick together."

The boy was still wearing his jacket. He looked down at it, then back at Langston. "I'm not a part of this vault anymore. I'm not a damn tunnel snake anymore either."

He dramatically hit the button. With a sickening crunch and a slow squeal, the only barrier between them and the outside world opened. A gust of wretched air hit them, and Langston crinkled his nose.

"What the fuck?" Langston muttered, clasping a hand over his face. James' kid turned to him menacingly, seeming to realize what was happening.

"No. Ohhh no. You don't expect me to take you with me, do you?"

Langston shrugged, and the guy laughed. 

"I don't even know your NAME. I doubt you bothered to remember mine. It was all "four eyes" this and "sweetroll" that. Well. Everyone will know of me whe-"

"When what?" Langston interrupts. "You go out there and kill everyone in the wastes? I saw what you did to those people, to Anita's dad. How you ignored Butch's mum. You're... kinda a freak pal. Maybe the wastes would be better off without you."

Langston raises his pistol, and clicks the safety off. The guy charged him with the bat.

Click.

It was over before it began. A clear shot to the chest, and the guy fell to the ground. Langston felt shaky. He had never shot anyone before. Now, one of his own lay before him. Before he could overthink it, he stepped over and ran past him. Through the vault door and down the tunnel. Fleeing the only home he had ever known.

Then, he flung open the door to the outside.

Almost instantaneously, he fell down the slope, tumbling down and knocking himself out cold. He lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom, and stayed there for the rest of the night.

...

Langston woke to the sound of an eerie song playing. It sounded faint, and muffled, and-

Oh, he was laying on top of his pipboy.

He groaned in pain as he pushed himself off the ground. The radio started to play clearer as the sun began to rise. Langston's eyes adjusted to the light that filtered through, and-

"Wow, this place is a shithole."

The ruined landscape gave little hope to Langston. He felt the need to run back to his hole, to beg the dwellers to let him back in. For the Tunnel Snakes to take him back in. But he knew that wasn't a reality. He killed a man, even though he was a killer he opened this can of worms. Now he would lie in it, or whatever the phrase was. He couldn't remember.

But in the distance: hope! It looked like a wall of metal, but he knew that some people must live there. He heard stories of the wasteland, rumours of raiders and other unsavoury people. But it was his only chance at getting a bite to eat.

So he set off. Towards his new life.


End file.
